Jurassic 5 - Feedback

Submitted by OTB - Aug 15, 2006

Jurassic 5

Feedback

Before I get into this let me start by saying that all though I may not be the biggest fan of J5 I appreciate the vision and purity of what they do, which is keeping that old school sound alive and present. That said, I expected the same ol’ run of the mill J5 album...the like of its two predecessors (Quality Control & Power in Numbers). I was pleased to hear that same formula through the first 2 old school drum driven tracks "Back for you" & "Radio"....thats about where things went down hill. Track #3, "Brown Girl" (produced by super producer Scott Storch) is such a contrived, blatant attempt at a radio friendly single that one would think that Jimmy Iovine wrote the lyrics himself, hook and all!

Thankfully, track #4 followed up w/ the old school flavor and transitions into the LP's stand out track "Baby Please". Here producer Exile seamlessly samples and chops up Al Greens "Love & Happiness"" while all 5 Mc's switch up flows to double time with tails of troubles with women.

Unfortunately "Baby Please" is followed up by the LP's first single, "Work It Out" featuring The Dave Matthews Band. Again we come to the cross road of either sticking w/ what’s worked or take a chance. As it turns out, J5's chance blew up in their face. Everything from the boring drum work to the "every thing's gonna be aight" lyrics to Dave Matthew's folksy voice just seems incredibly off. Fortunately for the listener, this is where the rest of the LP gets good. "Get It Together", "Red Hot" & "Turn It Out" serve as typical album "filler", while "Where We At", "Future Sound", "End Up Like This" and the 4:19 Dj Nu-Mark produced instrumental "Canto De Ossanha" serve you that L.A. head nodding hip hop you've been waiting for.

All in all, being that this is a predominantly Nu-Mark produced LP, (due to Cut Chemist following a solo career) it's solid offering and definitely worth the $15...that is if you don’t mind digging deep enough to find the treasures. -OTB